The Importance of Arts Education

Dr. Monica Palmer is the Dean of Faculty at The Governor’s Academy in Massachusetts, the oldest, continuously operating independent day and boarding school in the United States. Dr. Palmer graduated with a BA in dramatic arts and law & society from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She holds an MFA in theater from Columbia University, a M.Ed. in educational leadership from Teachers College Klingenstein Center for Independent Schools at Columbia University, and an Ed.D. in educational and organizational leadership from the University of Pennsylvania. She began her career as a professional independent film, soap opera and theater actor in New York and California, appearing in As the World Turns, Guiding Light, and in the film The Hurricane among others. In theatre, she worked on the Broadway production The Lion King, and performed on the off-Broadway production, The Caucasian Chalk Circle.

Mentioned in this podcast:

• “Arts-based education will power the creative economy” by Orion Jones in Big Think, March 11, 2015
• “The ‘Great Divide’: How the Arts Contribute to Science and Science Education” by Martin Braund and Micheal Reiss in Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, June 20, 2019
• “Until the Flood“, a play Written & Performed by Dael Orlandersmith; directed by Neel Keller
• “Living the Arts Through Language and Learning” by Shirley Heath with Elizabeth Soep and Adelma Roach of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in Americans for the Arts, Volume 2 Number 7, November 1998